The Etiology Of The Paraphilias

: One challenge facing the etiology of the paraphilias is, because of variability in preferences from one paraphilia to another, there may be several factors that can put a person at a higher probability of developing one specific paraphilia over another. According to Furnham and Haraldsen (1998), there are four factors that are considered to be important contributors to sexual abuse as a child, repression of sexuality, fear of the opposite sex, and having strict, dominant parents. The study goes on to classify the four factors under the headings of: early relationships, repressed emotions, lack of guidance, and biology (Furnham & Haraldsen). Their study went on to examine these specific risk factors in relation to four specific paraphilias: voyeurism, fetishism, pedophilia, and sexual sadism (Furnham & Haraldsen). In terms of voyeurism, the study showed that early relationships and repressed emotions were considered the factors the most important in the development of voyeurism, while lack of guidance and biology were deemed less important (Furnham & Haraldsen). For fetishism, early relationships and repressed emotions were considered to be the most important factors in the development of fetishism, while lack of guidance and biology were deemed less important (Furnham & Haraldsen). With pedophilia, early relationships and repressed emotions were considered to be the most important factors in the later development of pedophilia, whereas lack of guidance and biology were not as important (Furnham & Haraldsen). When looking at sexual sadism, early relationships was found to be the most important factor in terms of development of sexual sadism; repressed emotions, lack of guidance, and biology were deemed to be less important (Furnham & Haraldsen). One of the limitations of using this study as a definitive etiology for the paraphilias is that it only addresses four specific paraphilias. In order to gain a better understanding of the true etiology of the paraphilias, research would need to be conducted not only across all paraphilias individually, but also on those with paraphilias who have not be deemed sexual offenders. Doing so would allow for a better understanding to the true nature of all paraphilias, not just a select few, and would allow for more generalized etiology, instead of being limited to sexual offenders